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Ultimate Home Tour: The Garage

When his work hours were cutting deeply into his play time, a client of Guy Dreier’s came to the residential architect seeking a solution. “All my client did was work. Even in his vacation home, the room he spent the most time in was the office,” says Dreier, who has offices in Palm Desert, Calif., and Salt Lake City and often includes landscaping and interior design with architectural projects. “His joy is his car collection, and he wanted to be able to look at it while he was working.”

Dreier responded to the problem with an innovative yet simple solution. By placing a double-plated glass ceiling above the section of the 8,000-square-foot garage that is situated under the home office, Dreier created a transparent floor that provides his client a unique view of his vintage vehicles from his desk.

Dreier kept the interiors of the space neutral and minimal to blend in with the desert environment of the house, which is in the Vintage Club in the upscale Southern California community of Indian Wells. “There’s little clutter in the office to compete with the cars. All of the office equipment is concealed in a cupboard behind the desk, and all of the furniture is in subtle tones of beige,” says Dreier. “The floor in the garage is a mix of light tile and black granite with gold flecks, so that when you look down, it shimmers and really highlights the cars.”

Strong enough to drive a car over, the glass floor is composed of one structural layer and one cosmetic layer that is easy to replace if it becomes scratched or damaged. Beneath the floor is a space accommodating a constantly changing group of 25 cars; the owner rotates the inventory in this garage with the vehicles that he keeps at his home in Los Angeles.